Nigerian soldiers kill 13 Islamist militants as violence intensifies

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Nigeria's military killed 13 members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and lost one soldier on Tuesday in a gunbattle in Maiduguri, the group's northeastern stronghold, the army said.

Boko Haram, which is loosely based on the Afghan Taliban, killed hundreds last year in a campaign to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Nigeria, a country of more than 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

On Dec. 28, five people, including a police officer, were killed by gunmen believed to be Boko Haram members, police said. At least 32 people have now died in the northeast in the last week in violence presumed to be linked to Islamist militancy, the biggest threat to stability in Africa's main oil exporter.

"One soldier was killed by Boko Haram while the JTF killed 13 Boko Haram," Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military Joint Task Force, said on Tuesday.